One of the most simple forms of Fanservice is having an attractive female or male spend a small amount of screen time in the tub. Many films usually use this as an easy excuse for nudity. Even though they are not very necessary, bathtub scenes usually seem to sneak their way into many forms of media even though most of the time they're unnecessary to the plot. If they do advance the plot, that's often due to a deadly twist.

Bulma from Dragon Ball has a bubble bath in the second episode and is then seen naked by Goku, who makes comments about her cleavage, which is covered by the bubbles, and says it looks like a butt. She also has one in a filler scene in episode 49 of Dragon Ball Z during the Frieza Saga where she is in a capsule house in the bathtub talking to her father on a radio.

In the wartime Girls Love manga series Kurogane Pukapuka Tai, there's an unwilling one where stinky U-Boat captain Nina Stortebeker is hauled off and thrown in the tub before being scrubbed with a long-handled broom. Played for fanservice, naturally.

Pretty much every episode of Hidamari Sketch contains someone having a bath. It's usually Yuno, but it has been Sae, Hiro, Miyako, and Yoshinoya-sensei. One episode had short snippets of each one singing part of the first season theme song, but most often, whoever it is says something referring to what happened. By contrast, such scenes are few and far between in the manga.

In Sailor Moon Esmeraude had a bathscene where she was talking to her boss. A lot is actually shown, in comparison to her closed-up outfit.

The vampire villain, Camula, has a short scene in the bath after she sends her bats to spy on various duellists in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Her entire role is very much played for fanservice, being the only attractive female to appear up to that point (except Asuka).

The Dirty Pair movie known as Project Eden has our two heroines stop in the middle of their mission in an abandoned mine for them to engage in small talk while they have baths in a room that conveniently had multiple bathtubs filled with hot soapy water, but then becomes a significant plot point when they are attacked by alien-like creatures and are forced to retreat with just a Modesty Towel for the rest of the movie.

Neon Genesis Evangelion has a few bathtub scenes primarily used to show introspection on behalf of the characters of Misato and Asuka. Both of their respective scenes are part fanservice, part "What I am doing with my life everything is crazy" rants.

Would you believe there's an entire wiki devoted to this trope? Ain't the internet great?

The episode of Azumanga Daioh narrated by Chiyo shows snippets of what her fellow main characters are doing at the end of the day. Osaka is relaxing in the tub... which hides everything but her appendages.

Squid Girl has a couple of quick ones: When Squid Girl is sick, one of the remedies they attempt before finding out what the illness is is a soak in hot & cold water. The other is an Imagine Spot where Sanae imagines what she could do with something that makes you invisible... such as watch Squid Girl bathe.

Battle Tendency, the 2nd part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has a bathtub scene with Lisa Lisa after JoJo defeats AC/DC. The anime version definitely increased the Fanservice.

In Fairy Tail, Lucy gets these all the time, one time with Cana in the same bathtub.

Episode 6 of Koufuku Graffiti has one, when Ryou and Kirin attempted to wash away the sweat from the summer heat.

Comicbooks

Phantom Lady would occasionally end her adventures with a nice hot bath, and bubbles. Back in 1942.

Films — Live-Action

Red Dust provides one of the most iconic examples, possibly the Trope Maker, in which Jean Harlow takes a bath in a rain barrel, and neglects to use the modesty curtains, much to Clark Gable's consternation.

A non-Fanservice example occurs in Fatty's Tintype Tangle, a silent slapstick film in which Fatty Arbuckle accidentally intrudes on his domineering mother-in-law in the bath. She is horrified, but he just laughs at her.

The original 1976 movie Shivers (on which Sliver is at least partially based)has a bathtub scene where the parasite comes up through the plughole and then slithers up between the unheeding girls's legs... well, what do you expect, David Crounenburg directed it....

The title character of Carrie has a bathtub scene in the 1976 version, where she washes all the pig's blood off her in the bathtub equivalent of a Shower of Angst.

There's a bathtub scene in Pretty Woman for Julia Roberts to enjoy the five-star accomodations, that works kinda sorta as Fanservice, though only her head and one of her legs are showing for most of the scene.

In Original Sin, Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas take a bath together in a tin tub. Jolie's breasts are readily visible. In a case of Best Known for the Fanservice, this and the actual sex scene are probably the only things anyone takes away from the film.

In Out of Sight, as escaped bank robber Jack Foley soaks in a tub, US Marshal Karen Sisco confronts him. After clearly eying his nether regions (his eyes are closed and he's presumably unaware of her presence), she leans over to kiss him, eventually climbing into the tub with him before it's revealed that she's dreaming.

In the pilot of Selfie, Eliza has a Heroic BSOD after becoming violently ill on a plane and then getting recorded with puke spilling all over her. So she sits in her bathtub drinking ginger ale and on her phone, asking her faux-friends to comfort her and getting nothing.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles: One episode shows Sarah shaving in the tub, when she accidentally cuts herself. Cue dramatic shot of blood in the water.

The Scarlet Pimpernel: Young Lord Tony Dewhurst (Jamie Bamber) has a bath in public, with several girls washing him. He's a bit ashamed and tries to protest, but Mr. Fanservice has his duties. Comments from Tony's friends suggest that it might have lead to an off-screen Shower of Love and the loss of his virginity.

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